James b



(No Model.)

J.- B. P'OOLEY. TETE-A-TETB ROCKING CHAIR.

' N0."464,142. Patented Dec. 1 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES B. POOLEY, OF CLEMENTON, NEW JERSEY.

. TETE-A-TETE ROCKING-CHAIR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 464,142, dated December 1, 1891) Application filed June 4, 1891 Serial No; 396,068- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMEs B. POOLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Clementon. in the county of Camden and State of New Jersey, have made certain new and useful Improvements in a Chair Provided with Three Rockers, of which improvements the following is a specification.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a comparatively inexpensive, durableland attractive rocking-chair as an article of household furniture, having certain well-defined distinguishing or characteristic features and uses.

Hitherto a chair'of somewhat the form of a part of the present invention was known, provided with legs orlfeet adapted to rest firmly upon the floor or ground, but not adapted to be rocked back and forth. Moreover, spring rocking appliances having two seats facing each other and located in the same vertical plane were also known; but such appliances did not possess the uses and capabilities found in a chair of the present invention.

My invention consists, essentially, of a chair provided with two seats separated by a partition, forming an arm-support, and having their front edges facing in opposite directions,-the front edge of each seat extending beyond a plane passing through the rear edge of the adjacent seat, said seats being supported by three pairs of legs and rockers under said legs, as hereinafter fully described, and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a chair embodying the particular characteristic features of my pres ent invention, and Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the same.

In the drawings, A and A represent the seats of the chair, provided, respectively, with backs a and a, that are preferably curved and slatted. These seats A and A are disposed side by side, but with the front edge of one slightly higher than the rear edge of the other, to assist in bringing the center of gravity of persons sitting thereon substantially over the same pivotal fulcrum.

' Moreover, these seats are separated by a vertical partition A that serves to unite and brace together the backs of the chair, and constitutes, also, a support for the arms of the occupants of the chair. The seats have their front edges facing in opposite directions, and they are so arranged relatively to each other as that the front edge of each seat projects or is extended beyond a vertical plane passing through the rear edge of the adjacent seat, for a purpose to be hereinafter described. The seats are supported by legs suitably secured to the under side thereof, and these legs are arranged in three pairs, (a front and rear leg constituting a pair,) and the outer pairs of legs 0 and a support the outer edges of the seats, and the middle pair 0' support the inner edges of said seats and permit said supports to lie under and carry the chair. The front edge of each seat is extended beyond the rear edge of the adjacent seat, and the leg 0' of the middle pair of legs are farther apart than those of the outer pairs. The outer pairs of legs are supported by rockers b and b and the divergent inner pair are supported by a rocker b, and said legs are suitably secured to the rockers, which latter are preferably segments of the same circle. The two outer rockers b b are rearwardly extended at dand (1', so as to permit a free oscillation of the chair without danger of overturning it. The middle rocker is made without any extension and is thus shorter than the two outer rockers, to prevent it from pressing upon or striking the feet of persons sitting on the chair.

The purpose of having the seats so arranged that the front edge of each projects or is extended beyond the rear edge of the adj acent seat is to bring the center of gravity of persons sitting in the chairs substantially over the same pivotal fulcrum, and thusreduce the efiort required to rock the chair when it is occupied by two personsof different weights.

Another advantage obtained by the abovedescribed overlapping arrangement of the seats is that it permits the extensions 61 and d of the outer rockersto project a relatively shorter distance in front of the persons sitting in the chairs, and thereby contact of said outer rockers with their feet is obviated.

As a chair of this construction is to carry the weight of two persons to be alternately elevated and moved toward and away from the fulcrum of oscillation, its legs, and consequently its rockers, are peculiarly united together, and the whole seat supports are strengthened by X-shaped horizontal braces E, having arms united together by halved joints, and extending diagonally from the outer pairs of legs to the divergent inner pair, each leg of the latter pair having two perforations, one above the other, to receive the ends of the diagonal arms of the braces E; and on account of having the front edge of each seat overlapping the rear edge of the adjacent one, and thus having the legs of the inner pair farther apart, the arms inserted into the inner pair of legs are longer than those inserted into the outer pair of legs.

Having now fully described the nature and objects of my invention, what Iclaim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. As an improved article of manufacture, a chair provided with two seats and backs facing in opposite directions, three rockers and three pairs of legs, a front and rear leg constitutinga pair, the legs of the middle pair resting on a shorter rocker than the legs of 1 the outer pairs, but the legs of the said middle pair being farther apart from each other, whereby the front of the seats projecting beyond the rear edge of the adjacent seat are properlysupported,substantiallyasdescribed. As an improved article of manufacture, a chair consisting of two backs facing in opposite directions, two seats having their front edges facing in opposite directions, the front edge of each seat extending beyond a plane passing through the rear edge of the adjacent seat, three pairs of legs supporting said seats, and rockers supporting saidth ree pairs of legs, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES B. POOLEY. lVitnesses:

THOMAS W. SMITH, RICHARD (J. MAXWELL. 

